Garment hold-down apparatus

ABSTRACT

A garment hold-down apparatus for keeping a skirt or similar article of clothing in place during adverse weather conditions, the garment hold-down apparatus including an elastic band with a releasable fastening mechanism for joining a first end and a second end of the elastic band to form a continuous band, which may be selectively deployed over a skirt. In some embodiments, the elongated band may be covered in lace or some other design element.

BACKGROUND

The presently disclosed inventive concepts relate to the field of garment retainers and, more particularly, to a novel garment hold-down apparatus that encircles a wearer's garment, maintaining the garment in a desired position, regardless of wind conditions.

People often enjoy wearing skirts or dresses; however, there is a tendency for the bottom of a skirt or dress to rise when walking in a strong wind, for instance. Mother Nature is unpredictable, and the wind can pick up at any moment and cause embarrassment for the wearer. Consequently, a person wearing a skirt or dress in windy conditions must be constantly vigilant in order to prevent an undesired “wardrobe malfunction.”

Therefore, a need exists for a simple, practical apparatus which can be easily deployed to effectively maintain a skirt or dress in a desired position without fear that the outfit may become more revealing in windy conditions.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a garment hold-down apparatus shown positioned around a garment of a person constructed in accordance with the inventive concepts disclosed herein.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the garment hold-down apparatus.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the garment hold-down apparatus of FIG. 2 with a releasable fastening mechanism fastened to form a continuous loop or band.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along line 4-4 of FIG. 2.

FIG. 5 is a partial perspective view of another embodiment of a garment hold-down apparatus constructed in accordance with the inventive concepts disclosed herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

Before explaining at least one embodiment of the presently disclosed and claimed inventive concepts in detail, it is to be understood that the presently disclosed and claimed inventive concepts are not limited in their application to the details of construction, experiments, exemplary data, and/or the arrangement of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The presently disclosed and claimed inventive concepts are capable of other embodiments or of being practiced or carried out in various ways. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein is for purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting.

In the following detailed description of embodiments of the inventive concepts, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a more thorough understanding of the inventive concepts. However, it will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that the inventive concepts within the disclosure may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, certain well-known features may not be described in detail to avoid unnecessarily complicating the instant disclosure.

As used herein, the terms “comprises,” “comprising,” “includes,” “including,” “has,” “having,” or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion. For example, a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements is not necessarily limited to only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherently present therein.

Unless expressly stated to the contrary, “or” refers to an inclusive or and not to an exclusive or. For example, a condition A or B is satisfied by anyone of the following: A is true (or present) and B is false (or not present), A is false (or not present) and B is true (or present), and both A and B are true (or present).

The term “and combinations thereof” as used herein refers to all permutations or combinations of the listed items preceding the term. For example, “A, B, C, and combinations thereof” is intended to include at least one of: A, B, C, AB, AC, BC, or ABC, and if order is important in a particular context, also BA, CA, CB, CBA, BCA, ACB, BAC, or CAB. Continuing with this example, expressly included are combinations that contain repeats of one or more item or term, such as BB, AAA, AAB, BBC, AAABCCCC, CBBAAA, CABABB, and so forth. A person of ordinary skill in the art will understand that typically there is no limit on the number of items or terms in any combination, unless otherwise apparent from the context.

In addition, use of the “a” or “an” are employed to describe elements and components of the embodiments herein. This is done merely for convenience and to give a general sense of the inventive concepts. This description should be read to include one or at least one and the singular also includes the plural unless it is obvious that it is meant otherwise.

The use of the terms “at least one” and “one or more” will be understood to include one as well as any quantity more than one, including but not limited to each of, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 40, 50, 100, and all integers and fractions, if applicable, therebetween. The terms “at least one” and “one or more” may extend up to 100 or 1000 or more, depending on the term to which it is attached; in addition, the quantities of 100/1000 are not to be considered limiting, as higher limits may also produce satisfactory results.

Further, as used herein any reference to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” means that a particular element, feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment. The appearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment.

As used herein qualifiers such as “about,” “approximately,” and “substantially” are intended to signify that the item being qualified is not limited to the exact value specified, but includes some slight variations or deviations therefrom, caused by measuring error, manufacturing tolerances, stress exerted on various parts, wear and tear, and combinations thereof, for example.

Referring now to FIG. 1, a garment hold-down apparatus 10 is shown positioned around a garment 12 of a person 14. As shown in FIG. 1, the garment hold-down apparatus 10 may be positioned around the garment 12 above a hemline 16 or bottom of the garment 12. It should be noted that the garment hold-down apparatus 10 may be positioned anywhere above the hemline 16 of the garment 12; however, as shown in FIG. 1, it is preferable to position the garment hold-down apparatus 10 between a knee and a crotch of the person 14. In this way, the person 14 is able to walk naturally without their gait being hindered by the garment hold-down apparatus 10.

Referring now to FIGS. 2-4, the garment hold-down apparatus 10 includes an elongated band 20 having a first end 22 and a second end 24 opposite the first end 22. The first end 22 and the second end 24 may be joined together by a releasable fastening mechanism 26. As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, in one embodiment of the garment hold-down apparatus 10, the releasable fastening mechanism 26 may be a button and loop where the button is indicated by numeral 26 a and the loop is indicated by the numeral 26 b. As shown in FIG. 3, once the opposing ends 22 and 24 have been joined together, a continuous loop or band is provided. While the releasable fastening mechanism 26 has been shown and described as a button and loop, it should be noted that the releasable fastening mechanism 26 may be any type of fastening means known in the art such as, for instance, buckles, snaps, hook and loop (also known by the trade name Velcro), hook and eye, and frog closures.

In some embodiments, the elongated band 20 of the garment hold-down apparatus 10 may be an elastic band 30 enclosed in a cover 32. The elastic band 30 expands and contracts, for instance, as the person 14 moves. It should be noted, however, that in other embodiments of the garment hold-down apparatus 10, the elongated band 20 may comprise a non-elastic material sized to allow movement but still hold the garment 12 in place.

The cover 32 of the elongated band 20 may be may be constructed of a material such as, for instance, lace. In such an embodiment, the cover 32 provides a decorative aspect to the garment hold-down apparatus 10. In another embodiment, the cover 32 may be removable allowing the person 14 to change the color and/or style of the cover 32 to match the garment 12 being worn on a given day. In such an embodiment, the cover 32 provides both a decorative and a customizable aspect to the garment hold-down apparatus 10.

In another embodiment of the presently disclosed inventive concepts, a garment hold-down apparatus 50 is provided with an outer surface 52 and an inner surface 54 opposite the outer surface 52, as shown in FIG. 5. The garment hold-down apparatus 50 is similar to the garment hold-down apparatus 10 described above, therefore, in the interest of brevity only the differences will be described herein. In this embodiment, the inner surface 54 of the garment hold-down apparatus 50 is provided with a material having a frictional element 56, which when worn by the person 14 over the garment 12 abuttingly engages the garment 12 to hold the garment hold-down apparatus 50 in place and prevent slipping. The frictional element 56 may be a treatment applied to the material, or the frictional element 56 may be derived from the weave of the material. In other words, the frictional element 56 is not separate or individual but is a part of the material weave.

In view of the foregoing, it can be seen that when the person 14 places the garment hold-down apparatus 10 or 50 about their garment 12 above the hemline 16, the garment hold-down apparatus 10 or 50 serves as a retainer to prevent the garment 12, which may be a skirt or a dress, for instance, from blowing upwards, regardless of the wind conditions.

In another embodiment of the presently disclosed inventive concepts, a garment hold-down apparatus (not shown) similar to the garment hold-down apparatus 10 or 50 may be provided as one continuous band. Such an embodiment may be provided with an elastic band or a non-elastic band either of which may be placed over the garment 12 of the person 14, for instance, by stepping into the continuous loop and pulling the garment hold-down apparatus up to the desired position, or, pulling the garment hold-down apparatus over the head of the person 14 and down to the desired position over the garment 12.

While particular embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, it should be noted that changes and modifications may be made without departing from the presently disclosed inventive concepts in its broader aspects and, therefore, the aim in the appended claims is to cover all such changes and modifications as fall within the true spirit and scope of this invention. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A garment hold-down apparatus, comprising: an elongated band having a first end and a second end opposite the first end; a releasable fastening mechanism having a first portion and a second portion, the first portion connected to the first end of the elongated band and the second portion connected to the second end of the elongated band, the first portion and the second portion of the releasable fastening mechanism being releasably connectable to one another to connect the first end to the second end and form a continuous band; and a cover enclosing the elongated band to provide a decorative element to a garment as the elongated band holds the garment in place with the cover and the elongated band positioned over a garment between a knee and a crotch of a person.
 2. The garment hold-down apparatus of claim 1, wherein the cover is an interchangeable cover.
 3. The garment hold-down apparatus of claim 1, wherein the releasable fastening mechanism is selected from the group consisting of a button, a buckle, a snap, hook and loop, hook and eye, a frog closure, and combinations thereof.
 4. The garment hold-down apparatus of claim 1, wherein the cover further comprises an outer surface and an inner surface, the inner surface having a frictional element.
 5. The garment hold-down apparatus of claim 1, wherein the elongated band is elastic.
 6. A garment hold-down apparatus, comprising: an elongated elastic band having a first end and a second end opposite the first end; a releasable fastening mechanism having a first portion and a second portion, the first portion connected to the first end of the stretchable elongated band and the second portion connected to the second end of the elongated band, wherein the first portion and the second portion of the releasable fastening mechanism are releasably connectable to one another to connect the first end to the second end and form a continuous band; and a cover enclosing the band to provide a decorative element to a garment as the band holds the garment in place when the cover and band are positioned over the garment between a knee and a crotch of a person.
 7. The garment hold-down apparatus of claim 6, wherein the cover is an interchangeable cover.
 8. The garment hold-down apparatus of claim 6, wherein the releasable fastening mechanism is selected from the group consisting of a button, a buckle, a snap, hook and loop, hook and eye, a frog closure, and combinations thereof.
 9. The garment hold-down apparatus of claim 6, wherein the cover further comprises an outer surface and an inner surface, the inner surface having a frictional element.
 10. A method of holding a garment in place in adverse weather conditions, the method comprising: connecting a first end of an elongated elastic band to a second end of the elongated elastic band to form a continuous band; and positioning the elongated elastic band over the garment between a knee and a crotch of a person wearing the garment to hold the garment in place in adverse weather conditions.
 11. The method of claim 10, further comprising enclosing the elongated elastic band with a decorative cover.
 12. The method of claim 11, wherein the cover further comprises an outer surface and an inner surface, the inner surface having a frictional element, and wherein the step of positioning the elongated elastic band over the garment further comprises positioning the inner surface of the cover in contact with the garment. 